Welcome to the Outdoor Education Service

The Outdoor Education Service concerns itself with two main areas of work:

• providing advice, guidance, regulation and training on all aspects of good practice and safety management when off site and engaged on educational visits and outdoor learning. This is for schools, youth groups and associated voluntary groups, as well as other Hampshire, Portsmouth or Southampton Council agencies that work with young people
• the promotion and development of all aspects of outdoor learning: in the school grounds, on local educational visits, on field trips, on residentials, in environmental centres, taking part in adventurous activities or visits abroad.

About the Outdoor Education Service

Partnership in action

The service is provided for Hampshire County Council, where the Outdoor Education Service is based, and for Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils. This regional nature of the service, working in the same way, to the same standards, is one of its great strengths!

In addition, Hampshire’s ‘Outdoor Service’ is a recognition of the Education Department’s Outdoor Education Service fully cooperating with the Recreation and Heritage Department’s Outdoor Activities Service. This growing cooperation has already resulted in the successful Trailblazer Scheme and regularly publishes Out There, a well-received information and news letter.

About this web site

The site contains an open, public area for everyone to access and a password-protected area for Educational Visits Coordinators (EVCs).

Open

It is hoped that these web pages provide you with an interesting introduction to the Outdoor Education Service of Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton. The open pages provide access to details of projects and initiatives we are involved in and resources we recommend. There are details of the comprehensive leader training programme and the extensive opportunities to learn in the outdoors in your region. Current news is provided by the publication Out there and regular updates.

Password Protected Area

The password-protected pages for EVCs go into significantly more detail for the schools, youth groups and leaders who we work with directly. This includes the Council regulations and guidance document, as well as comprehensive support structures such as access to forms, risk assessments and checklists.

The whole site will continue to enlarge and widen as information is developed and requested. Please let us know what you think and recommend.